


First taste always free

by wintersjackson



Series: Urban Magic RWBY [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-03-04 03:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2908556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintersjackson/pseuds/wintersjackson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yang's made it to a new life with Ruby in tow, and all it took was a favour to an Heiress who was in just the right place at just the right time. Yang doesn't feel it reflects on her that she has a very bad feeling about this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First taste always free

Yang had decided a long time ago that if the Angels were right and there really was something up there, it certainly had no interest in her. Based on that, her default reaction to “miracles” was normally to wait for the pitch. No-one ever gave something for nothing. The world didn’t work that way. A person didn’t have to be a Fae to be only looking out for themselves.

Which meant that the woman sitting across the cafe table from her had every hair on her body on end. She’d been desperate and hopeless and on the end of her rope and “Weiss” had almost thrust these gifts upon her- money, transportation, repairs for her damaged bike. Forced had definitely been the word; the girl had almost seemed afraid Yang would decline. But really, what choice had Yang had? Miles from the sofa she had been offered as rest, Bike not moving another inch, and her little Ruby still snoring softly on the back of the seat.

All Weiss had taken in return was her number and the promise of a meeting the next day. Yang had hesitantly asked in the back of the streetcar Weiss had supplied if the white-haired girl was interested in her body, knowing she had nothing else of value on show, but Weiss had looked almost distraught and quickly insisted she wasn’t interested. So, prepared to learn what she had in fact sold away to get Ruby to a moth-eaten sofa belonging to an internet buddy, she had suited up and gone to the cafe.

What she hadn’t expected was for the place to be so nice. A picturesque, beautiful little shop on the riverfront. Ruby would have loved it, Yang mused, before looking once again across the table and feeling her stomach drop.

The other thing she hadn’t expected was for Weiss to bring her cat. It had been there last night, too, Yang realised, and today it took the third seat, watching disapprovingly as Yang hesitantly explained the last of her story.

“…So even with everything else set up, the last of the money was going on the gas to get us here, and that pot-hole was kind-of looking like the end of it. If not for you.” Yang explained, slightly annoyed that the cat seemed to be the one paying more attention.

“Look, how much do I owe you, okay?” She angrily blurted out, watching the girl blink and straighten up. “I’ve been your little dinner date, I’ve smiled and thanked you, now what do you fucking w-” She cut off suddenly as a tiny spot of skin on her forearm spat and started to sizzle, clamping a hand over it and choking back the sudden scream. She kept her hand clamped over it as the pain slowly dipped and faded until the spark went out and the spot quickly started scarring over.

“Are you okay?” Weiss asked carefully, aware the other girl looked like a cornered animal. She wasn’t sure why the girl seemed so bitter, but Blake had explained how much debts were worth to beings that could use them. And she was looking for a favour out of the girl-which she had seemed to have picked up on.

Yang only glared at her, teeth grinding, and Weiss huffed indignantly. “Alright, fine. Yes, I have an ulterior motive. My cat is trying to teach me magic and apparently I’m terrible at it, and seeing as she seemed to think I could engineer some kind of leverage over you we hoped you might be able to give me some pointers.” Blake rolled her eyes, and Yang seemed to be deciding if she was insane or not. Weiss took a deep breath and pushed down some of that frustration. “Now…are you okay?”

Yang had no idea what she was supposed to make of this-but the desperation in Weiss’s eyes looked genuine, and she slowly took her hand away, revealing the long, winding trails and spottings of scar tissue trailing all the way up her arms.

“My mom was a fire elemental,” she said gently, seeing recognition flit through those pale eyes. “I was born with all of the fire, but none of the spirit to draw on. If I get too angry…which, ah, is hard to avoid…I start to burn.” She glanced between the girl and her cat a few times, trying to decide if maybe, just maybe, the offer was legitimate. Ruby was sleeping on a ratty sofa in an even rattier apartment at that moment, and the kind of money Weiss seemed to have would really be helpful to look after her until the first bartending paycheck came through.

Heaving a sigh, Yang put her hands on the table and tiredly leant forward.

“Okay, first of all, what do you mean your cat is teaching you magic?”

~

After several long conversations about what a shaman was, how Weiss really didn’t know just why her cat could talk and knew so much about Yang, and how her father’s long reach meant she couldn’t just look this all up online, the two had travelled back to Yang’s temporary hook-up. Yang coughed and dragged her heel on the doorstep as Weiss rattled off a plan of contact and rendezvous so they could begin talking magic.

“I, uh,” Yang began, pausing as Weiss stopped and glanced over at her. “Human or not it’s not really my place to invite you in, but if you want to have a quick go at some basics there’s some space upstairs we could use.”

Weiss wrinkled her nose at the insult, even if hospitality rules were still pretty weird to her. Sanctuary and thresholds were beyond sacred in the world of magic, and being invited past them was actually required for some of the more dangerous beings out there to cross. Even after their day spent together and the bond Weiss felt they had established, Yang had still basically declared she trusted Weiss about as far as she could throw her straight up.

“Maybe some other time,” Weiss responded a tad frostily, nudging Blake back into the car with a foot despite the feline’s hissing.

Only when she had driven around the corner and out of sight did Yang quickly cross the road, taking the path to the back of one of the houses and fitting her borrowed key into the lock there. She could hear the thumping of bare feet closing on her as she re-locked it behind her, and turned just in time to sweep up the red-swathed girl in mid-leap.

It was hard to believe Ruby was seventeen, to look at her. Her face still had the swell of youth, head only coming a bit over mid-way up Yang’s chest, and her chest wouldn’t be following her sister’s on it’s path to impressive magnitudes for quite some time.

A ray of sunlight came through the glass behind Yang and she quickly turned to place her body between it and her sister, but for a moment the body in her arms was a bleach-boned skeleton, clad in the same dress. She quickly pulled the curtain across with a curse, but Ruby had already gone silent. Yang murmured reassurances to her sister as she carried her off to the kitchen, determined to put the day up to that point behind her until the morning.

Their father had a lot to answer for when it came to his choice in women, Yang thought bitterly.


End file.
